This story, from the Washington Post, and its aftermath, courtesy of the 'sphere's Stop The Bleating, is bad enough:

Glenn Reynolds proposed that readers Google the names mentioned in this WaPo article on the upcoming anti-war rallies in D.C., entitled "Antiwar Rally Will Be First for Many: Focused Message Draws Protestors of All Stripes." That sounded like fun, so I obliged by starting with the first name in the article, "Patrice Cuddy."

To hear the WaPo tell it, Patrice is a mild-mannered, middle-aged former schoolteacher from Olathe, Kansas, and will be a "novice protestor" in the upcoming rallies. The Post article seems to suggest that Cuddy represents a growing contingent of small town, mainstream, Red State Americans who're beginning to join in anti-war protests:

[T]hey will be joined by novice protesters such as Patrice Cuddy, 56. Interviewed by phone yesterday, the former public school teacher in Olathe, Kan., said she had to pull off her gardening gloves each time a neighbor interrupted her yardwork to ask about joining the bus she had chartered to go to the nation's capital. [Look! Even mild-mannered retirees from flyover country -- and their neighbors -- will be joining the protest!]

"It's small and it's quiet here in Johnson County, but more and more people are becoming part of the group that doesn't agree with this war," said Cuddy, who was planning to load about 45 people onto the bus in a Home Depot parking lot this morning for the 20-hour ride to Washington.

Organizers say that similar busloads of teachers, nurses, housewives and others with little experience in mass protest are coming from Wisconsin, New Mexico, Illinois, Iowa, Georgia, Ohio and many other states. [Look! More protestors from flyover country!]

"This demonstration will reflect, by far, the most diverse group of antiwar protesters since before the war began," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition, one of the event's sponsors. "We have people coming from all political persuasions, including a very large number of people who have never before been part of the antiwar movement or protest activity."

With a sinking heart, you could feel this coming:

But it turns out that Patrice Cuddy is also known as "J. Patrice Cuddy-Lamoree (see here and here), and has been helping organize antiwar protests from the beginning. Here's the Internet Archive of a website that Patrice edits, Wyeyed ("Wide-Eyed"), containing many photos from the February 15, 2003 anti-war rally of United for Peace and Justice, in New York City. No word on whether Patrice herself took those photos, but she says openly, on her blog at Greater Kansas City Democracy for America: "I have been in the streets since the beginning of this war . . . " And she advises her readers at Kansas City IndyMedia (where she has been posting since at least February of '03) : "If you ever get an opportunity to go to one of these big rallies, DO IT! A Total rave thing without the drugs and alcohol." She once tried to march in a local St. Patrick's Day parade as an "Elf for Peace," carrying "PEACE IS GREEN signs decorated with shamrocks."

"Novice" protestor? Not hardly.

I suppose it's just one item to go into the burgeoning "bias" file on the MSM, maybe to be filed with an extra, sad shake of the head over the duplicity of it all, so poorly done, even, and so transparent, now that there are people out there - out here - in the 'sphere, fact-checking, finding the seams, revealing the inconvenient facts left out of MSM accounts of events, and generally putting things into context, for those few (and if you are reading this, you are one of them) who have become doubters, and wonderers.

But then, it's such a stark example of the "big lie" technique writ large, unabashed by the likelihood, today, that it will quickly be unmasked and shown for the sorry stuff that it is. And the source of my concern is just that. This sort of thing is not just another case of "oh well, they think that's mainstream because that's what all their friends believe, the people they drink with and work with and the only people they ever talk to . . . ."

The bias is real; it is intentional; it is, in fact, malicious.

It's real, and it's intended to mislead you, and many others, and, in general, it still works, because so many of our fellow citizens still, notwithstanding the growing pile of evidence, believe and trust and look to the morning newspaper to tell them what they need to know.